inspire me...

Target!

I stopped by on my way home from work, found a few shirts I must have for a little bit warmer days.

And these shoes... LOVE! I think they def. say sexy little legal secretary! Of course, pending the crap going on at work right now.. I might not be a legal secretary for long! Its personal so I'll keep it to myself.

Bare minimum--I just discovered that things are pretty darn unfair in the workplace right now and I'm not happy. To put it lightly. I'm really effin pissed off, on the verge of crying mad, and want to put in my two weeks notice and slam the door... is more like it. Anyways, have 4 day weekend and must think happy thoughts.

. . . . .

but excuse me?!?! if you have a good devoted employee who goes out of her way to get things done and overall be a good employee.. why would you reward her the same as an employee who is on vacation/sick leave for half their employment time and spends countless hours during the working day on PERSONAL PHONE CALLS.

its maddening. I'm preparing speech to bosses... working up the nerve to actually make a meeting with them.. and then presenting my case.

If my employers can't reward me for hard work and encourage ambition to work harder, then sorry... I've got better things to do. I'm 24, I don't just want a JOB. I want something more, I want to enjoy my work and be rewarded and appreciated for what I can bring to the workplace. I don't just want to show up everyday ho-hum boring ass crap... okay, i said I was done. I'm done now.

I'm in love with these jeans from old navy as well. They have a french-inspired line and its pretty darn cute! too bad our actual store here sucks and never has any of the cute stuff they have online. boo hoo. old navy sizing is so weird that i never like to buy online because its usually way too darn big!

oooh, love these two tees as well! would look really cute on me with my nice blonde hair + tan i hope to have for spring (fake bake, no lectures please, i probably wont... skin cancer scares me!)

Well its almost 11 pm. time for me to get to bed! we have been sleeping with no heat on and i sleep so well. its weird. im like a little bug in my cacoon all snuggled up. its quite lovely! i really look forward to sleeping at night! and tomorrow is saturday, sleep in! yeaaaaaa~

happy holidays!

Well, its the inbetween part of Christmas and New Years. My parents left yesterday and I was feeling very sad, well I still am. Its hard being far away from them (400 miles to be exact) esp. when dh's family is closer and always around... I prefer my family, but doesn't everyone?
I don't understand the aspect of "in-laws" yet... I mean, they aren't my parents, I won't ever call them "mom/dad", I'm just not sure how to relate to them just yet. Thats a whole place I don't even want to go right now though!

My family (parents and bro) got here Christmas Eve, we did some shopping--food and drinks!, did some cooking, went to church on Christmas Eve night, watched movies, stayed up late, laughed and had fun. I wish they could have been here Saturday-Wednesday. Oh well, maybe next year. I do realize that I need to make a better effort to go see them. Its just hard when you work til 5 pm on Fridays. Can't get out of town until 6, and then a 5.5 hour drive... it just gets too late. And then Sunday afternoon you have to turn around and drive another 5.5 hours. Not fun! But, I do think we are in the place we should be right now. While I don't LOVE it, I like it here. We both have very good jobs, the housing market is decent here, we have friends and a good church to attend. I just wish we could meet more "couple" friends so we could do things all together.

This is pretty much just a random post. but oh well, you'll have that!

I found a journal at hobby lobby I'm going to buy for 2008... sometimes I want to rant and rave about personal things on here and I don't think thats always the best idea for safety and other reasons. So I'll just journal. :)

I found some looooovely fabric at hancocks yesterday... I can't find it online now, I know I've seen it. 70% off to equal 2.24/yard. I bought three yards! I want to make napkins and an apron and possibly a table runner for next year. I'm getting started EARLY for Christmas 2008. I have a lot on my list and it will make my life easier if I'm not rushing around crafting and not enjoying the holiday season next year!
I also found some cute fabric for some holiday napkins for my parents... I'll post pics soon. Maybe tonight I can snap some shots of my new fabrics. I also picked up some cute ribbon at J's for 70% off. I love holiday clearance! I hit up Walmart and Target yesterday for 1/2 price deals... Got some cute mugs and bowl sets at Walmart and a bunch of stuff (I probably don't need) at Target... DH said don't buy any junk... well, its not junk to me! I'll try to get some snaps uploaded tonight.

enjoy your holiday season! {>
thats a heart.. a weird heart, but a heart. :o)

countdown

Well, its getting closer and closer to Christmas. And I still have a list of things to get done!

Finish gift for co-worker, tonight.

Clean entire house (mom is neat freak!), this weekend.

Knit up slippers for brother, this weekend. However, I did get the pattern copied and blacked out yesterday, so thats a good start.

Finish buying/making gifts for family, this weekend.

Tomorrow night we are heading to the mall, hobby lobby, and lowes to do some exchanges, finish shopping, and purchase new countertops for our bathrooms. Our house was built in the 80's and apparently harvest orange was in. Both the bathroom's have orange countertops and we think they need to go! I think it will help give our bathrooms a more "modern" look which will be helpful since we are planning to sell this summer... more on that in another post.

Well, Friday I got my haircut! She did such a good job and I love it... if only I could make it look the exact way she did. I think it helped that she was blow drying it with a round brush and I'm just not talented/coordinated enough to handle that task! TOday my hair looks pretty cute though, but it doesn't have enough hairspray in it to stay yet... have to fix that after breakfast.

one christmas down, one to go

Well, just finished the wild christmas weekend with the inlaws. They were here from Thursday-this afternoon. And well, its nice to have our quiet little house back.
Although, I did manage to catch a somewhat nasty cold and am trying to battle that... its not fun. I hope its gone before the weekend comes.
I have tomorrow off, yippeee! I plan to get up somewhat early and run to the westend to get some last minute shopping done... hopefully monday mornings before Christmas aren't too chaotic. Then our Christmas party at CCD... gotta pick up something for them tomorrow too.
Then the weekend to get last minute gifts, cleaning, cooking/baking done and Christmas Eve-day after Christmas my family will be here... well pending good weather, of course. But its been nice here.
So... I'm excited. A little sad because the holiday season flew by WAY TOO FAST! And I didn't get nearly the amount of handcrafting that I wanted to.
Which leads me into my next subject... new years resolutions. I have a few... already.
So here goes.
1. CLEAN OUT every single room, nook, cranny, drawer, box, cupboard. We are planning to move to the other side of town this summer and I want to get rid of everything we don't need so we aren't forced to move a ton of junk... along with the essentials.
Hopefully I can get everything together and have a rummage sale in May sometime. Or else just give it all to the thrift store. We'll see!
2. Get on a budget. We are pretty good about spending money, but I'm going to start putting away the extra money we will be paying when we move to a bigger house... probably about 50-60k more total... so I'd like to get adjusted to that bigger payment and hopefully get our furniture bill paid off before we move, or close.
3. Mini vacations. Our lives are somewhat boring. :) I prefer comfortable though. But there are so many great little places around Montana, I want us to get out and enjoy them and the time we have with each other because we are considering starting a family soon and need to cherish our alone time!
4. Church.... I need to go more. I realize I will most likely always be attending by myself. But thats okay, I just need that in my life.

Well, thats all for now. I need to knit two hats up, make some cookies, and finish laundry... sometime. And then, of course, make a list for all the other things I need to get finished by Christmas-time.

Happy Holidays!

itty bitty aprons

I *finally* got the nieces' presents done!!! I kept putting it off and finally last night I sat down, picked a tutorial from the sew mama sew Handmade Holidays list... and got busy!
I made a few changes myself... made one a little bigger for the 4 year old... and used ribbons instead of actual fabric for the apron strings.

But, all in all I am pretty darn pleased with the final outcome. I hope the girls (and their mum) love them and use them lots! If not, I'll have to invite them over for some cookie makin' with auntie amy! so weird to be called an "aunt"!

I used home dec fabric from joanns that I got for $1/yard on clearance, so all in all, it was a pretty cheap christmas gift! I'll have to take a picture with the girls wearing their aprons.

I made two exact replicas so they don't fight over who has which fabric. Kids!!

2007

1) Where did you begin 2007? Black Bull in Hobson with Chad!

2) What was your status by Valentine's Day? Married

3) Were you in school (anytime this year)? I guess I took a paralegal class, but not actual "school".

4) How did you earn your money? At my job and selling some crafts.

5) Did you have to go to the hospital? Not for myself. Actually, I don't even know if I have been there at all in 2007...

6) Did you have any encounters with the police! Well once at the fair in Lewistown when my DH decided to pee outside in the beer gardens. Oops! I assured him I worked for three attorneys and was a responsible lady and would prompt kick DH in the butt and take him home!

7) Where did you go on holidays? North Dakota for the most part.

8) What did you purchase that was over $1000? roofing supplies (yuck), we also bought a four wheeler.

9) Did you know anybody who got married? ashley + eric.

10) Did you know anybody who passed away? A few I suppose, no one especially close to me thank goodness.

11) Have you run into anybody you went to high school/primary school with? Always in ND.

12) Did you move anywhere? Still in our first little townhouse.

14) What concerts/shows did you go to? Lonestar

15) Are you registered to vote? yes

16) Who did you want to win Big Brother? Sorry, don't watch that.

17) Where do you live now? Billings MT in first home with Chad and our dog, Sassy

18) Describe your birthday. Well I don't quite remember so it must have not been that exciting!

19) What's one thing you thought you'd never do but did in 2007? Actually get my wisdom teeth out, I was scared! Shot my third deer with my third bullet ever shot.

20) What has been your favorite moment? Learning to knit!

21.) What's something you learned about yourself? I can usually do something if I put my mind to it. and... being married is hard work.

22.) Any new additions to your family? Nope, maybe 2 years.

23.) What was your best month? I'm not really sure, this year was kinda tough for me.

24.) What music will you remember 2007 by? Conquering knitting and restarting to sew.. so I guess crafts! And our first (difficult) year of marriage.

25) Who has been your best drinking buddy(ies)? I don't know that I have "best" buddies but go-to friends are Ashley G, my DH, and Kelly.

26) Made new friends? yes

27) Best new friend? Kelly

28) Favorite night out? Dueling Divas at the Billings Studio Theater was fun and the bump n' run night at the Lewistown fair.

my works in action...

How darn cute is she? I knit her hat. :o)

the neighborhood

When we first moved into our townhouse, June 2005, the neighborhood was great. We share our house with one other house... our house is basically one huge house and then split down the middle into two homes which are very long and not so very wide! Everything is the same in them just flipped around.
It was the best option for our first house as we have 1900 square feet and it was built in the 80's. The houses we were looking at in our price range were built between 1900-1940 and TINY. (and our house is pretty much packed the way it is right now, so I'm not sure how we would have managed. I am quite sure, however, my husband would have loved to throw some things away!!)
We got a great deal on our house, although the yard is pretty little and with a chain link fence we can see five yards up and down the block and it doesn't offer much privacy. But this is our "starter" home and so we can't have it all...
The lady who lives across the yard from us, our house doesn't adjoin hers, was never around, we never saw her outside... EVER! So all of a sudden her daughter + three kids + friend... lover.. not sure what this other girl's role is.. move in. And all hell breaks loose. They decide to shovel all this rock from her front pation into boxes. The garbage men would not take it, so they proceed to leave the boxes of rocks (in front of our house as well) out on the sidewalk for over a month. Finally I talked DH and neighbor man into shoveling them into our garbage cans because I really would not prefer to have cardboard boxes sitting on the sidewalk in front of my house for the next year.. You know those types of people. Do it half-assed and then leave it? Well that method is fine as long as its something that doesn't effect me or the way my yard looks. So then they dig out ALL these bushes... surprisingly the garbage men picked those up, thank god! And now there is this big bare ugly spot in their yard... I should make a bet on how long it takes them to actually do something decent with it.
And, here's the kicker, they get a puppy. Which is fine and great and I think everyone should be entitled to having pets, under the condition that you actually take care of them. Well our chain link fence that divides our yard and hers is raised up off the ground, not very far, but for the purpose of weed eating under the fence (as she didn't take care of her yard when she lived alone... someone else did). Now the little bugger dog comes into OUR yard, steals our dogs toys, and takes them back to his yard. So... I have chased him out many times, it goes unnoticed. Apparently they cannot hear me yelling from inside their house, which I highly doubt. *a/k/a ignorance!*
So... I have decided to start leaving the gate of our yard open. And yes, this may be cruel but I have had it with this ignornant people and there nasty habits and their annoying dog. I realize its not the dog's fault, she just wants to play. But you cannot leave a puppy outside, alone, for two hours and not think she isn't getting into trouble. Our dog is well over 80 pounds and I quite know that she will be not crawling under the fence into someone else's yard. She is not ever outside unattended without being locked in our yard. She is not allowed to bark and only does so when eyeing a cat or a stranger, which I appreciate. Neighbor's dog barks and barks and barks. Our houses are merely 15 feet apart, therefore if I'm hearing the barking, I guarantee they are too.... Although they probably just turn the TV up louder to drown it out.
I'd like to go over and say something, but what do I say? I'm frustrated with this right now... I really want to leave my neighborhood because of this, and the need for more space... but I love our little home!
I guess I just need to go check out a little flower bed divider and put it up by our fence as the dog owners won't do anything about it...
Also... one day the dog destroyed a newspaper... so papers all over their yard... and they haven't done a thing to clean it up! It just honestly drives me crazy. I want to build a big tall fence around our yard so I don't have to see or deal with our neighbors ignorance!

Okay sorry, back to the regulary happy holiday season! Last night when I got home, the gate was closed... so we'll see what happens today. I will continue to leave it open every single day until it finally sinks in!

focus...

My life is crazy right now! I have no idea how I'll manage to get everything done before Christmas and then I think to myself, "self, you are stressing out during a time that you need to be enjoying!" so I've cut my list of things to do down. I have decided to start on holiday projects in the spring and hopefully have them finished by the time winter rolls around. :o)

Okay so I don't post in forever and then I have a million things to say when I actually do post. I need to work on that...

Anyways for now... I will leave you with some lovely inspiration for some holiday craftin! I actually have made a few things, they are just sitting on my camera..waiting to be uploaded. Soon, I promise, soon!

This is a def. must make for next year... found it on flickr, can't remember the owner.. oops!

And thinking about this for some christmas card inspiration, garden gallery at twopeas. I got an entire box of cards at Hobby Lobby for $3. You can't beat that price! And hurray for this place finally getting a Hobby Lobby---def. aids in pursuading me to stay. :)

Happy beginning season of Advent! We learned about advent last night at CCD, I don't think my kindergartens quite got it... they were crafting get well soon cards while I was talking, and they aren't the best multi-taskers, but they are still awesome and keep me smiling!